The fighting in Syria continued Thursday, mainly in Aleppo, the country's second city. The clashes took place in the district of Mohafaza and shells have targeted neighborhoods such as Saleheddine and Mashhad.

The fighting killed 15 civilians in the city Wednesday night. The army and rebels sent reinforcements Wednesday to Aleppo, which now is considered a decisive place for the battle between the opposition and the regime.

In Damascus, where the army seemed to have restored its control over most areas, clashes erupted in the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk, according to residents and opposition sources.

On Wednesday, the violence left 143 dead across the country - 75 civilians, 41 soldiers and 27 rebels - according to revised figures by the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Meanwhile, the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday that the U.S. position on the Damascus bombing that killed several senior Syrian officials was "a direct laundering of terrorism." He made the remarks in response to the comments by the spokesman of the U.S. State Department Victoria Nuland, who said the attacks on senior Syrian officials were "not surprising".

"This is a direct justification of terrorism. How should we understand this? "asked Lavrov. In a suicide attack on July 18, the Syrian Minister of Defense Dawood Rajha was killed along with three other senior officials, including Rajha's Deputy, Assef Shawkat, the brother in law of President Assad.

The top Russian diplomat said he was surprised that the UN Security Council failed to condemn this attack, which Moscow has considered as an act of terrorism "and demanded the arrest and punishment of those responsible.